Preview: Tigers vs. Southern Mississippi

Another daunting task sits in front of the suddenly surging University of Memphis Tigers (10-5, 1-0 in conference USA) on Wednesday evening as the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles (15-2, 2-0) come into FedExForum looking to beat a Tigers team that is on a four-game winning streak, and have won the last 17 meetings between the two schools.

"All I can say about that is that I hope it (their losing streak against Memphis) continues," said Tarik Black, sophomore forward for the Tigers. "They're a great team, they have a great coach and I think they're No. 1in our conference, but we just have go out there and prove we're the better team."

The Tigers know that this is a new season and that this is a different Southern Mississippi squad, especially without former star forward Gary Flowers who is gone due to graduation, but this is also a different U of M team that has an undeniable advantage over USM - Will Barton. The sophomore guard is putting up numbers (18.9 points per game, 8.9 rebounds per game) the caliber of an All-American candidate, and head coach Josh Pastner knows that if he keeps up his current pace of double-doubles, then he should garner some consideration.

"I'm surprised he (Will Barton) doesn't get enough talk about him," Pastner said. "People talk about him now because he's playing at a level of an all-American status. The rebounds he's getting is in traffic - he's at eight double-doubles right now and last year he had none. That just goes to show you the improvement of his game, his maturity level, but he needs to keep it going."

In order for Barton and the Tigers to keep it going, they will have to stop a potent backcourt of Angleo Johnson and Maurice Bolden. Not to mention they now have former Kentucky guard and Tigers recruit Darnell Dodson in the mix, so this could finally be the right team to finally get over the hump against Memphis.

"This is the best Southern Miss team since coach Eustachy took over," Pastner said. "They've got really good guard play, really good frontcourt, they've won 11 straight and they're 15-2 - they're really good."

Pastner is urging everyone to come out to the game Wednesday and to show support for the team though the game is at an earlier start time than usual. Tip is scheduled for 6 p.m., but Pastner feels this should be an entertaining game.

"It's a 6 o'clock start for the fans, Pastner said. "We need everyone there ready to rock and roll so we can get this thing going - it should be a fun atmosphere and another fun game for Conference USA."